Bad Boss Story

The 3 Worst Boss Stories From Our Readers

Like many of you out there, our annual reviews are around the corner, and it got us thinking: Exactly how much can you get away with when it comes to reviewing your boss? The truth is, it doesn't matter. Because between water-cooler gossip and lunches with colleagues, no formal review process can take away from the real reviews that are already in.

Still, having an outlet to vent is healthy, so we asked you, our readers, to submit your most horrible boss stories. Here are the top three.

Editor's Note:We've kept these submissions anonymous for obvious reasons. Some of these stories have been edited for length.

The Verbally Abusive Boss

I had a boss when I was starting out at a restaurant who was very verbally abusive. She came up to me once while I was eating my lunch at the bar, and in front of customers said that I looked like a queer and that she would've kicked my ass in the '70s. She also called me retarded when I messed anything up, and eventually fired me for cutting my thumb. The pay sucked, too!

The Takes-Advantage-Of-You Boss

My boss was the Emperor of Mean. He relied on me heavily — my workload required I work 55-hour weeks when everyone else got away with 40. He expected me to skip lunch to complete assignments because as he would say I "didn't work hard enough." I was upset on one occasion because my father was in the hospital due to diabetes complications, and he told me to get over it. He would humiliate me in department meetings — on one occasion, he actually revealed my salary to the team and joked about how he got me to work so hard for what he considered "so little."

He would berate me behind closed doors for two hours every other day, conveniently after human resources was gone for the day, and then he would get drunk over the weekend and call me up early Sunday morning crying the blues about why we didn't get along — it had to be my fault. Complaints to HR fell on deaf ears because he had the administrator in his back pocket.

Dealing with this type of behavior caused me to start having panic attacks, and Valium was prescribed just so I could get through a meeting. I took time off to handle the stress, but it didn't matter. When I got back he was worse than before. The last straw was when he had a colleague pull me out of the bathroom to take a client's phone call. I quit that day. Yes, I walked off the job, and to this day, it proved to be the best thing I could have ever done for ME. Oh, and it took three people to replace me.

As far as I'm concerned, the Presidential Suite in hell is reserved in his name.

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